Rollright Stones, Nr Shipston on Stour
Long Compton, Stratford
The Rollright Stones, erected mainly between 2500-2000 BC, are situated on the Warwickshire-Oxfordshire border, on a hilltop at a sacred site above the Warwickshire village of Long Compton. Parts of the stones are as old as 4000 - 3500 BC.
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There are three main structures - a huge circle of stones known as the King’s Men, a smaller group of stones leaning together called the Whispering Knights and a solitary rock standing nearby, the King Stone. All have an interesting legend behind them involving a witch offering to the knights what seemed a simple challenge...see the foot of this page under 'Myth and Legend' for details.
The name “Rollright” is believed to derive from “Hrolla-landriht”, the land of Hrolla. According to local folklore the stones are the petrified remains of a king and his knights.
The King’s Men
The King's Men, is a late Neolithic ceremonial Stone Circle dating from 2500 to 2000 bce. It consists of 77 heavily weathered local oolitic limestones. The Stones were scheduled under the 1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act along with Stonehenge and Avebury. The Rollright Stone Circle is the southerly cousin of the Cumbrian circles such as Swinside and Long Meg and her Daughters in the English Lake District. Family traits include similar size, shape, close-set stones (it is believed that there originally some 105 stones standing shoulder to shoulder), astronomically-aligned entrance and a pair of outlying portals where gates were hung to stop the sheep from straying into the road.
The King Stone
This monolith stands 50 yards away from the Stone Circle itself, across the road. Its purpose and age are unclear, although it is believed to be of middle Bronze Age origin. Some sources suggest that it might be an outlier to the Stone Circle. The strange shape (likened to a seal balancing a ball on its nose) of this standing stone has less to do with the weathering effects of nature than with the destructive habit of 19th century drovers who chipped off small pieces to act as lucky charms and keep the Devil at bay. Thankfully this superstitious vandalism no longer goes on.
The Whispering Knights dolmen
The Whispering Knights date to around 4000 - 3500 BC and are the remains of the burial chamber or barrow of an early or middle Neolithic portal dolmen lying 400 metres east of the King's Men. The Knights are a small group of five upright stones; four standing stones forming a chamber about 2 square metres around a fifth recumbent stone, probably the collapsed roof capstone. These stones were originally erected in an arch-like structure, the stones forming walls, with a roof slab. The whole structure had then been covered with earth to form a chamber inside an artificial hill, a long barrow. Over the course of 4 millennia, the chamber has been looted, the soil removed, and the stone structure has collapsed. The stones get their name because of the conspiratorial way in which they lean inwards towards each other as if they are plotting against their king.
See these other websites for further details;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/weird-warwickshire/rollright-stones-virtual-tour.shtml
http://hearteng.110mb.com/cotswolds/rollright.htm
http://www.rollrightstones.co.uk/index.php
Myth and legend
A King with ambitions to conquer all of England had got as far as the Rollrights when he came across a witch. According to some accounts she was Mother Shipton of Shipton-under-Wychwood (c.1488-1551). She challenged the King with these words;
“Seven long strides shalt thou take And if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be.”
Off went the King, shouting;
“Stick, stock, stone As King of England I shall be known.”
On his seventh stride the ground rose up before him in a long mound, known as the Arch-Druid’s barrow. The witch laughed and declared;
“As Long Compton thou canst not see King of England thou shalt not be. Rise up stick and stand still stone For King of England thou shalt be none; Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be And I myself an eldern tree.”
And so it was that the King became the King Stone, his men the King’s Men Stone Circle, and his treacherous and conniving knights the Whispering Knights.
Tradition has it that one day the spell will be broken. The King and his men will return to life and continue with their conquest of England.
The witch then turned herself into an elder tree to watch over the victims of her magic. The witch-elder is said to be in a hedge between the King Stone and the Stone Circle, and if cut when in blossom it will bleed. Once upon a time people would gather round the King Stone on Midsummer’s Eve - when the elder was cut the King would move his head.
Opening times
Please contact the attraction direct for details of opening times.
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